


Being

by Looming



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 11:36:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18120023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Looming/pseuds/Looming
Summary: She can hear Chase already. Can hear his voice going small and fragile, almost breaking with worry as he grumbles something likeHow could you let the Rolls get rained on,as if it doesn’t already spend every second of every other day cooped up in the filthy underground garage in their filthy underground hostel. Covered in dirt, and grime, and who knows what else.Nico turns, her eyebrows twisted up in something like mourning for the scolding she knows she’s got coming – and that she knows every bit as well she could just Nico her way out of – and Karolina nearly laughs again.





	Being

They’re both maybe three or four steps from the car when the downpour hits, drenching everything in sight while Karolina blinks, and making the whole thing feel like the moon is playing some sort of game with her. _Now it’s here, now it’s not_.

The first bout of laughter comes when she’s caught in the midst of watching her fingers slip against the passenger side door, coated and slippery with rain as it is. It’s more reflex than anything. More adrenaline and shock mixed together and evaporating out along her tongue in the only way she knows how to let it.

Because when does it _rain_ around here?

The second comes when Nico finally finishes throwing the few bags of snacks – the ones she _insisted_ on carrying herself – into the trunk; when she rips the door open and collapses into the driver’s seat, drenched and, oh, there isn’t going to be any saving that leather. She looks nearly as defeated and every bit helpless as a wet puppy dog, and between the groan that she pushes out when she sees her reflection in the rear-view mirror; sees the way her eyeshadow is already running tracks down her cheeks like dark purple tears, and the way her hair is caught halfway between dripping and frizzed all over the place; the way she tries – and fails, repeatedly – to jam the key into the ignition, Karolina knows there’s just no helping it. So she laughs.

She can hear Chase already. Can hear his voice going small and fragile, almost breaking with worry as he grumbles something like _How could you let the Rolls get rained on,_ as if it doesn’t already spend every second of every other day cooped up in the filthy underground garage in their filthy underground hostel. Covered in dirt, and grime, and who knows what else.

Nico turns, her eyebrows twisted up in something like mourning for the scolding she knows she’s got coming – and that she knows every bit as well she could just Nico her way out of – and Karolina nearly laughs again.

But she controls herself.

She locks her eyes to Nico’s. Feels herself ready to fall in. Feels herself being pulled closer and closer to the warmth inside with every second of near silence that passes. She leans across the center console and drags the pads of her fingers slowly down the line of Nico’s jaw, letting her thumb brush against the edge of her lips. Back. And forth. Maybe she’ll take some of that lipstick with her. A bit of black smudged onto the side of her finger; a bit of Nico to carry around for the rest of the night.

She brushes the spot again.

Once.

Twice.

And then Nico smirks, a flicker in her eyes, a spark, and the faintest little turn of her mouth, and Karolina leans closer. Closes her eyes. Karolina feels that smirk press against her own. Feels it grow wider and wider still until she manages to catch part of it between her teeth and Nico is giggling right along with her.

“So,” she starts, still grinning ear to ear as she returns to her own seat and presses her thumb one last time to Nico’s lips. “Where to next?”

~*~

Nico decides home is next.

Getting there proves to be another matter entirely. The rain has somehow gotten even worse, and every other driver seems to have forgotten how their gas pedal works now that the roads are wet. Nico looks seconds away from pulling out her staff and causing an incident just to clear a path. Her grip tightens and loosens on the steering wheel every few seconds. Every time they’re forced to slow to yet another stop.

Karolina knows she should stop her. Calm her down. Reassure her that a little traffic is fine and they’ll get where they need to be eventually.

She also knows that she doesn’t really want to. That energy hidden in the depths of her eyes is exactly why she loves Nico. Her darkness and her intensity. The parts of her that are beyond Karolina’s control or desire to see tamed. She’s like no one else Karolina has ever met.

So, she doesn’t stop her.

At least, she doesn’t stop her _that_ time. Not when Nico is still capable of stopping herself. It’s when they’re stuck at their eighth red light in a row and Nico starts trying to roll down the window that she finally acts, and leans across the console again. She doesn’t try to touch her, doesn’t reach over or pull her back. Just positions her arms so that her chest will be the first thing in Nico’s line of sight, and she bats her lashes and whispers Nico’s name.

It works.

Obviously.

Nico whips her head around, glaring at Karolina for barely half a second before she notices the smile, and the cleavage, and suddenly she’s huffing out a long, shaky breath and settling back into her seat.

“Whatever,” she grunts. But Karolina chuckles to herself, because can see the smile Nico is trying her absolute hardest to keep buried down. She’s the one with the light, after all. And loving Nico’s darkness doesn’t mean she’s unwilling or unable to look inside. It means she knows that darkness like the back of her hand.

~*~

The rain lightens up fairly quickly after that, and the other drivers finally rediscover the confidence they dropped somewhere on the floor of their cars, so the rest of the drive home is relatively quiet. The roads are mostly empty.

It gives Karolina a chance to take advantage of the quiet and take in every detail of Nico’s driving.

The way she sighs as her shoulders relax, and the way her grip loosens, no longer nearing the point of white knuckled fury now that they’re not boxed in with another driver on every side. The way she sits, still tense – because she never recovers that easily – but cloaked in that familiar Nico Confidence that tells you everything is going to be fine, even if she has no clue what she’s doing. The confidence that put her in the spot of leader in the first place. Even the way she tries to pretend she’s not _loving_ the attention when she finally realizes Karolina is staring.

A few beats pass before they reach their next red light, and Nico cracks then. She lets the question on the tip of her tongue leap free.

“What’s wrong?” She asks.

But Karolina doesn’t answer. Instead, she slowly reaches over and cards her fingers through Nico’s hair, pulsing her touch lazily in and out along the spot just above her ear. The touch sends a shiver through Nico’s body so sharp that she almost gasps beneath her touch. And that convinces Karolina to let her hand drag lower; to light a path down her neck, watching the muscles flex and tense as she slides her fingers steadily lower. As she brushes the backs of her knuckles along Nico’s shoulder and down the path of her arm. Until she’s toying with the belt keeping her staff securely tucked underneath the still damp fabric of her jacket.

The look Nico hits her with then is torn between a desire for more, and an unbridled joy that Karolina didn’t try this while they were moving. Doubtless because she would have slammed on the breaks right then and there.

Karolina doesn’t have the heart to admit that that’s why she waited in the first place.

~*~

Later that night – or maybe the next morning, Karolina doesn’t care to reach over and check her phone to decide what day it is – when Nico is curled up into her side, one small arm thrown across her waist and gripping tight at her ribs, and their legs a tangled disaster, Karolina lets her thoughts run wild like she hasn’t spent the whole day giving them free reign to do exactly that.

Nico, she thinks, is truly incredible.

And not just for the obvious reasons, either.

Not just for her strength, and her fury, and her passion. Not just for that.

But for the ways she breathes life into their little mundane moments together. For the ways that Nico loves her. The ways Nico lets herself _need_ her every bit as intensely as she needs Nico. The ways that they rely on each other – wordlessly and without ever once needing to ask – to be seen as safe haven from the chaos and the fear that make up this new life of theirs.

Having Nico return to her life at _all_ was already a gift beyond description.

Girls like her just don’t _get_ girls like Nico. Life never works out that way. So, having her like this? Having her here. Right here. Skin on skin and those steady breaths of hers tickling their way across Karolina’s belly. Pliant and relaxed and completely willing to let Karolina describe her with words like _cute_ and _soft._ Having Nico to help change these moments of silence from something only relaxing into something truly memorable?

Well. She doesn’t think Nico is incredible for nothing.

And, absently threading her fingers into Nico’s hair, she laughs. Unable to contain her smile any longer. No more than one or two small puffs of air, but still enough to disturb the quiet. Still enough to wake her up.

“S’wrong?” Nico asks, jolting awake and trying to push herself onto her elbows, her voice husky and scratchy with sleep. “D’we gotta get up?”

“No, no,” Karolina laughs, again, and presses a kiss to the top of Nico’s head, earning her a little responding moan and the sight of Nico immediately accepting that answer as truth; crawling back down to search for the spot she just dragged herself away from.

This time, with the sun just beginning to rise and Nico already working her way back toward a faint snore, Karolina closes her eyes. She lets herself drift off, too.


End file.
